Sobha Developers vaults post Q2 performance info

COIMBATORE/BANGALORE: Shares of real estate company Sobha Developers Ltd vaulted 9.18 per cent at the closing session with the company, defying the gloom surrounding the realty sector, indicated that it was on course to achieve its guidance with regard to saleable area and revenue for the current year.

The company stock shot up to Rs 318.75, a gain of 9.18 per cent against the previous close on the BSE.

What has probably worked in its favour is its focus on the tech capital Bangalore city, whose real estate market is one of the few in the country to show demand and price stability.

Guidance for current fiscal

In a statement to the stock exchanges, Sobha Developers said that the company had set for the current fiscal a guidance of new sales area of 4.2 million sq.ft. valued at Rs 2,600 crore.

It appeared to be on course to achieve this target as it had registered new sales area of 1.92 million sq.ft. valued at Rs 1,235 crore at the end of the first half of this year.

The company said that in the second quarter ended September this year, it had sold 1 million sq.ft of new space worth Rs 632 crore and the average price realisation was Rs 6,304 per sq.ft.

QoQ growth

Sobha Developers said that though the sector had faced headwinds, its core market Bangalore continued to do well where it sold 0.67 million sq.ft. of new space in Q2 of 2013-14, a 12 per cent growth sequentially and 14 per cent growth quarter-on-quarter (QoQ).

In fact according to the new sales area data provided by the company, on a QoQ basis, it has shown sales growth in four of the seven markets in which it was operating, excluding Kozhikode, which was a new market and hence was not comparable.

In Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore and Mysore markets, sales in the last quarter was higher than that of the same quarter in the last financial year.

NCR region sales

But it was sales in the NCR region that took a serious knock as it came down to 30,892 sq.ft. in the second quarter of this year from 1,37,600 sq.ft. in the same quarter last year.

In Pune too, the fall was significant —to 12,716 sq.ft. in Q2 this year from 38,621 sq.ft in Q2 last fiscal. In Thrissur too, it was down but marginally — to 1,03,270 sq.ft from 1,18,306 sq.ft in the second quarter of 2012-13.

But Sobha’s foray into Kozhikode proved to be a winner with new sales of 56,661 sq.ft. in the September quarter this year.

Sales growth

The growth in new sales area recorded during the first half of this year was 8 per cent year-on-year.

Sales value in Q2 of this year was Rs 632.3 crore (Rs 527.4 crore) and the price realisation on an average was Rs 6,304/sq.ft. against Rs 5,575/sq.ft. in the same quarter last year.

However, on a sequential basis, while the sales value moved up compared to the first quarter this year (Rs 602.8 crore), the average price realisation per sq.ft. dipped marginally from Rs 6,548/sq.ft. in Q1 of this year to Rs 6,304/sq.ft. in Q2 of the current fiscal.

Sales value realisation

Sobha Developers said that the new sales value during the first half of this year was higher by 23 per cent year-on-year.

On QoQ basis, the new sales value was higher by 20 per cent and 5 per cent sequentially. The sales realisation was up by 14 per cent in H1 of this year compared to H1 of last year.

The company said that it was hopeful of achieving its guidance for the full year “despite the existing macroeconomic uncertainties of GDP growth, interest rates and inflation’’.

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